Good Grief Bikes' Nice Bar: Review - The Ride Experience

  Note: Guitar Ted purchased the Nice Bar at full retail for personal use and review from Good Grief Bikes. Good Grief Bikes has no input on this review and all opinions are Guitar Ted's.

My 2003 Karate Monkey set up with the Good Grief Bikes' Nice Bar

Now that I've had some rides on the Good Grief Bikes' Nice Bar, I have a few things to share about this handmade, "alt bar" from Colorado. If you missed the previous posts on this bar, you can see the intro HERE and the set-up and more in the second update HERE. 

Going into the riding portion of the review my concern was that this stoutly built bar would be an unforgiving, hand-numbing component that looked cool but was no fun to ride. Thankfully that was no where near the mark in my experience.

The Nice Bar does have a bit of give and so it doesn't really have that "zing" when you hit a sharp bump. This is subtle, so the bar feels direct and nothing like a "noodle" when you get up and yank on the bars for a sprint or sharply inclined climbing. 

I mentioned in the opener that I was pretty sure the angle of the extensions would be comfortable for me. I have tried many "alt" bars and I have tried about every conceivable  variation in angle from a more subtle 17° to the Jones Bar's 45° angled extensions. 

In my opinion, anything close to or beyond 40° is just a bit too much. At least it is for me. I never really got on with the Jones H Bar, although it is not "bad", but I often wished for less sweep when I used that bar. 

Having some amount of sweep is a good thing, in my opinion, from an ergonomic viewpoint. I liked those old Salsa flat handle bars with 17° of sweep. Then I got a hold of some Answer carbon bars with 20° and that was even better. The Nice Bars have 34.5° of sweep, so quite a bit more, but not in the ballpark of the Jones H Bars. In my opinion, I feel like this handlebar is about as "extreme" in terms of sweep, that I would likely feel alright with. 

The 34.5° of sweep in the extensions works well.

The thing is, to get that forward extension of the Nice Bar to work I don't think you could go with much less sweep. So, I think in terms of the design, this is a good place to be that offers many hand positions instead of a mildly swept bar that had no forward extensions at all. 

How about those nubs sticking out there? Any good or what? Well, I like this junction of the extensions and the central bar that bridges across to both because it gives me a couple of very comfortable, useable grips. 

One is to grasp the bar so that my thumbs are on the forward extensions ends, right on the end cap I installed there. This is a great climbing position for those longer grades. That works well for a touch of aero as well. Secondly, I like draping my hands across the central bar and forward extension which relieves pressure spots that build up while I am on the cork grips. It's a good place to cruise for a long time, and again, gets you a bit skinnier to the wind. 

I'm impressed with the ways I can get around to different positions on this bar and give my hands a break from time to time. There are not as many options as you would have to choose from with a drop bar, but there are a lot more to use than any typical flat bar would have. I've no doubt I could ride for a day on these bars with no stress induced from the handlebars. 

Plus, these bars look really cool. I still find myself checking them out in the Sunlight which really brings the different hues of the "flash painting" out. The steel construction really compliments my Surly frame and looks "right" on the bike. So, that part is good and along with the ride quality, I feel like these bars are going to be on this bike for quite a while. 

I'll be back later on with some reports on how this handlebar is holding up over a longer run in the future. Likely sometime this Spring. Look for that coming up.